Fanball.com Acquires NFBC, F+W Fantasy Products

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:31 am

Below is a major announcement involving the NFBC and all of our fantasy products here at F+W Media. I am creating a thread and a Live Chat on our NFFC boards now only because I can't handle all questions on both boards, so if you want to get more info on this announcement go to:

http://nffcboards.stats.com/cgi-bin/ult ... 1;t=004186

I will answer any questions here, but again for a look at the live chat go to the NFFC boards soon. I'm doing all I can to keep everyone informed while scanning both boards. Thanks all and I PROMISE this is going to be GREAT NEWS for the NFBC community

:

Fanball Acquires the Fantasy Sports Properties from F+W Media, Inc.

“Fantasy Powerhouse adds Leader in Live Events Fantasy Tournaments”

St. Louis, MO, August 14, 2009 – Fanball, the premier provider of online fantasy sports contests, content, strategy and insight, announced the acquisition of the fantasy sports properties from F+W Media, Inc-- including the National Fantasy Football Championship and National Fantasy Baseball Championship contests as well as Fantasy Sports Magazine and the Company’s fantasy sports custom publications division.

Fanball’s acquisition combines two of the fantasy sports industry’s leading online and offline properties.

The National Fantasy Football Championship and National Fantasy Baseball Championship are the leading high stakes fantasy sports live event contests. Both contests feature a $100,000 Grand Prize, along with several other overall and league prizes. The high stakes contests also feature online and satellite leagues with varying price points.

Fantasy Sports Magazine has been published since 1989, and is one of the foremost fantasy sports analysis publications. The magazine currently prints four issues per year. The publication will join forces with Fanball’s wide array of fantasy sports and NFL draft-related publications. Fanball has provided fantasy sports contests and content since 1992, and has awarded more than $50 million in prize money over that time.

"Fanball is leveraging our extensive online userbase to enter the fast growing live events business for fantasy sports," said Ryan Houston, SVP of Fanball.com ">http://Fanball.com>. "This enhances our product offerings and adds key personnel to our group as we continue to look at partnerships. We are thrilled to add two pioneers in the fantasy sports industry, Greg Ambrosius and Tom Kessenich. Their collective industry experience increases our presence on the national newsstand and bolsters our array of existing print publications."

“I’m excited and honored to be working with the Fanball team. This is the right move at the right time for our live events,” said Greg Ambrosius, founder of the National Fantasy Baseball and Football Championships. “With the great customer base that already exists with Fanball.com ">http://Fanball.com> and CDM Fantasy Sports, the future is now brighter than it’s ever been for the NFBC, NFFC and other sports we look to be a leader in. Tom and I are excited about the future of the live events industry, about working on all of the Fanball print and online products, and about being a big part of one of the leading companies in the industry.”

Said David Blansfield, President, F+W Media, “Although we are exiting the fantasy sports market, this does not affect the rest of the sports community at F+W Media. We will continue to build our sports collectibles community through our books and magazines, auctions, data and online presence. It is a testament to their talent and reputation in the field that Greg and Tom, who have managed our fantasy sports and events businesses, have become employees of Fanball concurrent with this transaction. We congratulate them on this new opportunity.”

The National Fantasy Football Championship Main Event will occur Saturday, September 5 in Las Vegas, Chicago, and New York simultaneously, with satellite leagues taking place throughout the the next four weeks. The National Fantasy Football Championship also offers online leagues that are ongoing through the beginning of the NFL season at different price points from $125 to $1,000.

For more info about the National Fantasy Football Championship, visit www.fantasyfootballchampionship.com ">http://www.fantasyfootballchampionship.com> ">http://www.fantasyfootballchampionship.com/> . For more information about Fanball, visit Fanball.com ">http://Fanball.com> ">http://Fanball.com>

About Fanball

Fanball (Fanball.com ">http://Fanball.com> ) is one of the leading providers of fantasy sports products and services in North America. Fanball has operated fantasy sports games since 1992. The company currently offers baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf and auto racing games that can be played via a variety of methods, including phone, mail, email, fax and the Internet. Fanball also owns the fantasy sports sites Owner’s Edge (Fanball.ownersedge.com ">http://Fanball.ownersedge.com> ), Fantasy Cup (Fantasycup.com ">http://Fantasycup.com> ), and RotoTimes (RotoTimes.com ">http://RotoTimes.com> ). Fanball, PicksPal and CDM Sports are all wholly owned subsidiaries of Liberty Media Corporation, which owns interests in a broad range of electronic retailing, media, communications and entertainment businesses. For more information, please see www.libertymedia.com.

FFBL23 · Post by **FFBL23** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:39 am

Wow, I'm not sure how I feel about this, but you da man Greg. If you say this is a good thing then I'm all for it and excited. How will this change the NFBC?? Will you still run the baseball events and conitue all the great things going in the NFBC??

Kevin

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:45 am

Okay, first things first:

I'd like to start out by saying that Tom and I are EXTREMELY excited about the possibilities here. Liberty Media is acquiring our fantasy properties and they have aggressive ideas for how we can grow this area of the space. The connections that Liberty and Fanball.com and the CDM Fantasy Sports group have allows us to think BIG for everything that Tom and I have been doing in the live events area these last six years.

Secondly, all of our print products are being acquired by Fanball and Tom and I will also be part of all of the Fanball and Rototimes print titles. There isn't a better looking magazine in the industry than the Fanball fantasy magazines and after 20 years of being "down and dirty" with Fantasy Sports Magazine, I'm excited to see what that pioneering title can look like under their direction.

Thirdly, all of our live events members should know that our back-end commissioner service is still consistent with what we have now. STATS Inc. is still hosting all of our leagues and working with us on baseball and football. Through Fanball, we should more easily be able to add a basketball and hockey national contest, but we are still working closely with STATS on our two current contests. Everyone should know that I owe the live events business to STATS because without Steve Byrd showing an interest in my idea, this NEVER would have gotten off the ground here.

Me, Chris Adamski and my boss Dean Listle drove to Chicago in the summer of 2003 to talk with STATS about a few print ideas and I pitched this high-stakes baseball event idea to them after being rejected by USA Today and many other prominent companies. Steve shrugged off this idea, but the next day on the first tee of a golf outing he said he liked the idea and would like to work together on this. Dean felt such a positive vibe that he helped me convince management to do this on our own and the rest is history, with STATS as my partner every step of the way. I owe a lot to Steve and STATS and I hope we continue together for years to come. Their back-end system is AWESOME and I think we still can do a lot of great things together.

Hope this helps to explain a few things.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:57 am

Okay, now about me and Tom to better paint this picture:

I've been at Krause Publications for 20+ years and have enjoyed most of my years here. I met my wife here at KP, we have three children and still reside here in Iola. We love this area of the country and certainly plan to stay here. Tom has been with me here for the last 10 years and just bought a place not far from Iola. We are extremely fortunate that Fanball understands our living situation and desires and they will open an office for us here in Iola and allow us to be based here.

For the next couple of months, however, we will work in a separate area of the company and continue through the payouts of the baseball event. All payouts for the NFBC and NFFC will come from Fanball, but our 800-number, e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, etc., all remain intact for the next 90 days. So we'll get through the football live events without a hiccup and then get set up in a separate office in town here by October or November.

We now have a new boss in Charlie Wiegert, who a lot of our NFFC/NFBC/CDM members know well. What can I say? Could you ask for a better boss?

Charlie and I go back 18 years together and he was my first friend on the business side of the industry and he will always be my friend. This is a great setup for me and I think this has even energized him. We're happy for each other and happy for what could happen now in the future.

And it was Ryan Houston who took the bull by the horns and made this possible. He has a vision for this area of the industry that is similar to mine and he's less conservative than me and willing to take chances. This week he immediately got us the autographed memorabilia items to spur sales and he took the chance on the thousands of dollars in expenses even before the sale was completed. He takes more risks than me, which is good for everyone. Ryan and I will work well together and I'm telling you if all of his aggressive ideas come through, wow, LOOK OUT!!! WE WILL KICK SOME ASS IN THIS SPACE!!!

Finally, I just want everyone to know that this was a business deal between two major companies. I've said this many times that Tom and I never had any equity in the high-stakes space, we were just very dedicated employees who loved what we had created. I not only didn't precipitate this deal, I didn't know anything about it until I had to sign an NDA and then even after that I was completely in the dark. So ask Ryan if you want more details because Tom and I had little say in the transaction, but we've agreed to be part of it, we're excited about the new team colors and we're not looking back on the past.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:58 am

Greg,

Under F&W's direction, the NFBC was very efficient in how quickly they paid winners at the end of the season. What kind of timeline can we expect under the new company? Thanks!

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:12 am

Originally posted by FFBL23:

Wow, I'm not sure how I feel about this, but you da man Greg. If you say this is a good thing then I'm all for it and excited. How will this change the NFBC?? Will you still run the baseball events and conitue all the great things going in the NFBC??

Kevin Correct, Tom and I are going along with the assets and we're now both happy employees of Fanball.com with a new office in Iola, Wisconsin. It's all good. We are along for the next decade or more of running the NFBC/NFFC/NFBBC and more. Just watch, you're going to like the positive changes you'll see in this space.

And remember that Liberty Media has a LOT of TV assets that could play well for the fantasy space. I think this is going to work out well if all of our plans come to fruition.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:14 am

Originally posted by bjoak:

Greg,

Under F&W's direction, the NFBC was very efficient in how quickly they paid winners at the end of the season. What kind of timeline can we expect under the new company? Thanks! The exact same, if not better. This has already been discussed with Fanball. I am extremely confident that 2009 NFBC payouts will be done on the same timetable as 2008 as long as we have your W-9 on file. No worries there, but very good question.

Quahogs · Post by **Quahogs** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:20 am

Someone dropped the ball... A big consolidation in the industry like this and not once is the word synergy used in the presser. The opportunity to use synergy doesnt come along often but when it does...

It sounds like an exciting move. Good news for two good guys. Congrats !

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:23 am

Originally posted by Quahogs:

Someone dropped the ball... A big consolidation in the industry like this and not once is the word synergy used in the presser. The opportunity to use synergy doesnt come along often but when it does...

It sounds like an exciting move. Good news for two good guys. Congrats ! Thanks Steve. The synergy is everywhere between these two fantasy companies and now it's all consolidated into one. I think it will work fine.

Check out the NFFC thread for more details. I'd copy and paste everything, but it's tough to do. Thanks for the kind words and all will be good.

Timcards · Post by **Timcards** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:55 am

Greg,

Was this the first year weekly winners didn't receive a prize? I seem to recall at least the first few years each weekly winner winning an autograped picture or ball.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:54 am

Sounds like a great marriage.

I'm for any change for broadening the NFBC/NFFC without changing the core that has made the NFBC/NFFC what it is today. Tom and Greg are at the center of that core.

Greg, except for spawning a new contest, we as game players saw little change from the NBC partnership, what changes can we expect with this new family?

By the way, I was extremely critical of RotoTimes blurbs in another thread. Of course, I take nothing back, in fact I am hoping this partnership may improve things a little on THEIR end. Is this a possibility as well?

[ August 14, 2009, 05:55 PM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:02 pm

Originally posted by Quahogs:

Someone dropped the ball... A big consolidation in the industry like this and not once is the word synergy used in the presser. The opportunity to use synergy doesnt come along often but when it does...

It sounds like an exciting move. Good news for two good guys. Congrats ! Here's a poster for the new office in Iola. Just cut and paste over the middle dude.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 1:56 pm

Originally posted by Timcards:

Greg,

Was this the first year weekly winners didn't receive a prize? I seem to recall at least the first few years each weekly winner winning an autograped picture or ball. Weekly winners of the NFBC main event WILL receive a prize at season's end. We did not get a sponsor of that area, but we have it in the budget to give a prize. We'll announce something soon, so keep playing for the Weekly Prize and next year we will budget something for a Weekly Prize in the Online Championship, too.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 2:02 pm

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

Sounds like a great marriage.

I'm for any change for broadening the NFBC/NFFC without changing the core that has made the NFBC/NFFC what it is today. Tom and Greg are at the center of that core.

Greg, except for spawning a new contest, we as game players saw little change from the NBC partnership, what changes can we expect with this new family?

By the way, I was extremely critical of RotoTimes blurbs in another thread. Of course, I take nothing back, in fact I am hoping this partnership may improve things a little on THEIR end. Is this a possibility as well? Totally understood Dan. The funny thing is that we offered to buy Rototimes.com three years ago and thought we had an agreed-upon purchase. It then fell through and CDM kept Rototimes.com. Now they are buying our entire fantasy sports division, magazines, events and all.

Nothing really changed with the NBC Sports partnership, but things will change here with Liberty Media now involved. You will see a better live event, possibly more draft locations, possibly more in-season short-season games from the NFBC, an enhanced web site and more. We really want to improve everything, but the key is to maintain the same game engine and leaders of the contest. Tom and I aren't going anywhere, so I can GUARANTEE that last part and STATS continues to do a great job with our commissioner product.

We likely won't be part of player notes, but I'll relay the thoughts and do all we can to improve all of the content with the guys at Fanball and Rototimes. I'm looking forward to working with the online crew. I've been with a print publishing company for 20+ years and have never had an online presence outside of all my free-lancing jobs with ESPN.com, SI.com and MLBPA.com. So I'm excited to help in any way, including suggestions to the notes pages.

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 6:02 pm

Greg does this affect the hotel agreement for 2010 in Las Vegas?

Glenneration X · Post by **Glenneration X** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:42 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

quote:Originally posted by Timcards:

Greg,

Was this the first year weekly winners didn't receive a prize? I seem to recall at least the first few years each weekly winner winning an autograped picture or ball. Weekly winners of the NFBC main event WILL receive a prize at season's end. We did not get a sponsor of that area, but we have it in the budget to give a prize. We'll announce something soon, so keep playing for the Weekly Prize and next year we will budget something for a Weekly Prize in the Online Championship, too. [/QUOTE]Hmmmmmm.....do 2-time weekly winners win two prizes?

Might I make a suggestion to the new management team? I've taken an informal survey of two of the weekly winners to date.....and I think Mets, Jets, Knicks or Rangers memorabilia would go over really great. Either that or the FX girls Greg mentioned in an earlier thread.

Just trying to be helpful,

Glenn

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:01 am

Originally posted by Walla Walla:

Greg does this affect the hotel agreement for 2010 in Las Vegas? Nope. We continued the deal with the Flamingo for NFBC 2010 and will still have GO Rooms for $109 on March Madness. That's a great deal, especially if the economy comes around by spring. I'll list that room code soon. I'm not even sure if they're taking registrations yet, but I think we have 75 rooms set aside for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Setup is exactly the same for Saturday and Sunday. The only difference is on Friday we couldn't get the third room auction rooms, so we're actually downstairs on the first floor instead of upstairs. But we have six meeting rooms, so we're good to go.

Nothing changes in Las Vegas. We do not have any other hotel locations at this point, however. We will discuss all of this in meetings next week in St. Louis.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:03 am

Originally posted by Glenneration X:

quote:Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Timcards:

[qb] Hmmmmmm.....do 2-time weekly winners win two prizes?

Might I make a suggestion to the new management team? I've taken an informal survey of two of the weekly winners to date.....and I think Mets, Jets, Knicks or Rangers memorabilia would go over really great. Either that or the FX girls Greg mentioned in an earlier thread.

Just trying to be helpful,

Glenn [/QUOTE]Of course you win two and there are more prizes out there. We bought MLB Replica jerseys last year from FansEdge.com and allowed you to pick any jersey with your name on the back if you'd like. A lot of the guys liked that. We didn't get that deal done with FansEdge as expected, but we have the money set aside to provide a nice giveaway at season's end. Stay tuned.

Purple Helmets · Post by **Purple Helmets** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 3:30 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

quote:Originally posted by Glenneration X:

quote:Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Timcards:

[qb] Hmmmmmm.....do 2-time weekly winners win two prizes?

Might I make a suggestion to the new management team? I've taken an informal survey of two of the weekly winners to date.....and I think Mets, Jets, Knicks or Rangers memorabilia would go over really great. Either that or the FX girls Greg mentioned in an earlier thread.

Just trying to be helpful,

Glenn [/QUOTE]Of course you win two and there are more prizes out there. We bought MLB Replica jerseys last year from FansEdge.com and allowed you to pick any jersey with your name on the back if you'd like. A lot of the guys liked that. We didn't get that deal done with FansEdge as expected, but we have the money set aside to provide a nice giveaway at season's end. Stay tuned. [/QUOTE]Nice, even if my teams slide in the standings I at least get to look forward to a prize. I don't own a baseball jersey yet so ask Ryan to bump up the budget ever so slightly so you can duplicate last year's prizes.

Edwards Kings · Post by **Edwards Kings** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 4:06 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

I'd like to start out by saying that Tom and I are EXTREMELY excited about the possibilities here. Liberty Media is acquiring our fantasy properties and they have aggressive ideas for how we can grow this area of the space. I am glad everything worked out for you and Tom. Basically purchased twice in about a year means you must represent a hot property. Congratulations.

Of course, now you both are in the same family as the Braves. I guess that makes us cousins!

Still making my plans for next years contribution. Vegas is at the head of the list, but did I read that other cities might be in consideration? I guess you will know more after next week. I would be interested in what the potential choices would be.

Congrats again and glad you both could stay "home" with the new organization.

poopy tooth · Post by **poopy tooth** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 9:26 am

Greg/Tom,

Acquisitions can always run a little bit of risk, especially for the employees of the acquired company.

I think the two of you staying on through each change is definitely a testament to your knowledge and your character. Your both deserve all the respect that you receive and more.

This morning, I logged onto rototimes.com to check out the Kuroda injury and noticed Tom listed as an author of football team reviews. The Eagles looked like the first team.

Tom - you have always provided excellent football content, so I am sure that will remain the same, but I'd like to offer one sentence for inclusion in your Eagle review...no hard feelings if it ends up on the cutting room floor!

Although the Eagles have signed MIchael Vick, he will always remain a worthless piece of sh*@, a$$hole, motherf*@#er for what he did to those dogs.

Congratulations again to the both of you, glad to hear you will both remain...always nice when the customer's thought are actually heard!

duggan · Post by **duggan** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:23 am

Congrats to Tom and Greg who have created a great concept that has been in high demand. What makes their product unique is a high stakes game played on a national level by a finite number of people. Hopefully the new owners will be aware of that and not change the essence of what makes this a great contest. Again, way to go Tom and Greg!!!